G. Ryan Cerbus

Designing and making since 1984.

My friends at Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea bought a special lot of coffee from the small African country of Burundi. Bethany, the co-owner and manager, wanted to create a sleeve to go over their normal retail packaging to highlight this special and limited product. After some research, I created a sleeve that we produced at a local printshop and then cut, scored, and glued by hand in order to keep costs low. The design incorporates the national flag and gives the customer an idea of the relative size and location of Burundi. Click here to see the entire sleeve.

I've really enjoyed designing wedding invitations for all five of my siblings, my sisters-in-law, and a number of friends. My sister was married in December just before Christmas and wanted a winter but not Christmas theme for her invitations. I used her the colors and decorations that she'd picked out for the venue in the invitation.

Durable was asked to consider creating a brand system for a coffee-related, charitable organization and we happily took up the work. The organization's focus is on the education of children in coffee-producing villages and we created a combination of a pencil and coffee cup to communicate to the American consumer these two disparate concepts. The client wanted a friendly, approachable aesthetic, so I used hand-drawn artwork and lettering to compose the brand system.

The Center for Student Engagement needed a t-shirt for an exclusive leadership and outdoor adventure program offered to incoming freshmen. The director wanted it to feel both collegiate and elite while featuring the main components of the program. I used a combination of illustrations from The Noun Project and original artwork to create a one-color t-shirt.

The women's soccer coach needed a postcard invitation to send to prospective student athletes. I created a card that emphasized the exclusive nature of the invitation and drew upon the history and legacy of the team. After completing the design, I set up a mail merge with a database of names and addresses provided by the coach.

The Admissions Office needed to refresh the folder given to prospective students when they visit campus. The folder needed to contain half-sheets full of personalized information and have a spot for their admissions counselor's business card. I worked with the Publications Manager to come up with content for all the panels and chose photography that showcased the diversity of the student body and the beauty of the campus.

The Physical Plant department needed to communicate the appropriate uses for the recycling bins around campus. I wanted the sign to be readable at a glance, so I created original illustrations of each type of recylable material.

A local publisher approached Durable about creating a cover for a new book on social justice in different areas of American society. The position of the authors was that there was potential for opportunity in these areas, and so I created a typographic solution that found "opportunity" in the areas addressed in the book.

The Alumni Relations Office needed a quick postcard to invite members of the senior class to an event. I had the example of the previous year's postcard, the creative brief, and about two hours to put together a postcard to be produced by the next day. I used royalty-free photography and a sophisticated serif type to communicate that this was a special evening event for seniors.

Two professors needed to advertise a special book discussion course to students during the class registration period. The title of the book lent itself to the stark color palettes and typography of Communist propaganda posters. I used an image of the author and took new photos of the two faculty members before treating them all to fit together aesthetically.

The Adult Degree Programs office asked me to completely redo one of their core admissions pieces. The request came at the same time that our director decided that we needed to give that program a visual refresh. I created a new look that differentiated the Adult Degree Programs from our traditional undergraduate programs by using black and white photography, a more sophisticated serif typeface, and a limited color palette. The new look was adopted and I applied it to this packet of information sheets, which were contained in a sort of upside-down folder.

The Bitar Lecture Series is an annual event that I was able to work on for a number of years in a row. It was a challenege to come up with something new each year that visually communicated the abstract, philosophical subject of the lecture. In 2013, I took my cue from the word "intersection" and designed a layout that created intersecting lines and areas of different visual direction coming together.

The Athletic Department was hosting an event to honor one of its former coaches and needed a postcard to invite alumni and friends. The audience was mostly older alumni and the only available photograph had a very 1950s or 60s feel to it. I combined the photo with Geneva's branding elements to create a nostalgic postcard with the goal of increasing engagement and responses from those invited.

A friend involved in the Geneva Rugby club asked me to create a t-shirt to be given to participants in the alumni game at Homecoming. After a few iterations, I settled on a design that drew from historic rugby marks.